Posted February 14, 20233:16 pm
The following is coverage from The Cleveland Scene about the potential displacement of Euclid Beach Mobile Home Park residents. Click here to read the Legal Aid statement prepared for the February 13 news conference.
By Mark Oprea
It was 2008 when Connie Fredericy and her husband David moved into the Euclid Beach Mobile Home Park, drawn both by the community and the proximity to the water.
Fredericy had been living in a home on Wendell Avenue, on Cleveland's east side, and cleaning offices for a living. Then, around the mid-2000s, their neighborhood, went downhill, ravaged by drug dealers and crime.
In 2008, Fredericy said their home was forced into eminent domain by the city. She fought back, but in the end left with $60,000 in compensation.
"I gave up," she said, standing outside her mobile home in the Euclid Beach Park. "And then, well, we found this neighborhood here."
Now, 15 years later, Fredericy is about to be forced out of her home again.
On February 9, members of the Western Reserve Land Conservancy announced at the Collinwood Rec Center across the street from Euclid Beach that they were accepting the recommendation of the Metroparks to turn the land over to the park system to create a larger and more unified green space. Meaning that, in anywhere from 12 to 15 months, the 139 residents of the park must vacate.
The decision, which dozens of residents say was privately known by WRLC when they bought the park from out-of-state landlords for $5.8 million in 2022, has sparked an incoming legal battle between residents and WRLC and stakeholders in the Metroparks' vision.
On Monday afternoon, in front of the vacant guardhouse, a group of them gathered to call out their landlord for negligence and to announce what could be a lengthy legal battle in the year ahead.
Or, if WRLC succeeds in its attempts for what housing advocates are labeling a mass displacement, a trying test for residents who have no desire—or disposable moving funds—to get up and leave.
"These homes, though they're often referred to as mobile homes," Josiah Quarles, an organizing director at the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, said. "Most of them are not actually mobile."
Besides the $500 to $600 a month most residents said they paid in rent or mortgage, added costs have ramped up over the years. Some, like Cheryl Elswick, said water bills have skyrocketed along with the yearly rent increase — $20/month recently, which the conservancy said was necessary to offset financial losses on the property.
Elswick, who works full time while caring for her mother and uncle, is quick to point her finger at WRLC. Especially witnessing the crime spike in the past few years.
"It's been worse in the past couple of years, but since they've gotten it, since they bought it, it's been terrible," she said. "They always had a guard stop the cars that came in. I mean, you could walk around here at night. There used to be fences over there, but [there were] so many crashes, they never rebuilt the fence."
In a statement, Matt Zone, WRLC's senior vice president, reiterated a stance made in the February 9th meeting, that a soon-to-be-formed steering committee—comprised of members from 10 regional organizations—will work to best respond to the "unique" needs of each resident.
Moreover, since January 2022, when WRLC accumulated the property, proper upkeep has been done, Zone said, from new security cameras installed around the park's office to a $90,000 upgrade of each resident's sub-water meters.
"Our first priority is fair and equitable treatment of the residents of the Euclid Beach Mobile Home Community," Zone said in the statement. "We recognize how disruptive this entire process is and are doing our best to manage the property and respond to any tenant concerns."
At the rec center meeting, Zone said the organization was committed to “mak[ing] sure housing justice is served.’’ As Cleveland.com reported, "The conservancy will start meeting privately with residents next week to begin planning relocations over the next year and a half. The goal is to make sure that no one would be worse off financially."
The coalition has argued that the creation of the green space and addition to the Euclid Beach Reservation will not only improve access to the waterfront but build momentum for future affordable development in Collinwood.
The tenants aren't buying it, and feel like not enough consideration is being given to their immediate situation.
Brochelle Baker, a mother of one, was one of the first members of the United Residents in Euclid Beach, a tenant organization created, Baker said, in response to WRLC's neglect. Baker, along with other residents present, said she suspects that WRLC intended to not include tenants in the greenification process on purpose.
"We believe that the engagement process for the Neighborhood Plan was biased and dishonest from the very beginning," Baker said to the crowd. "This process never included us and never presented the destruction of our neighborhood as a possible outcome to the Greater Collinwood community."
For Fredericy, what-ifs routinely collide with the present concerns.
Ever since 2012, when she suffered a massive stroke, she's been unable to work consistently, and relies on, along with her husband David, $1,800 from Social Security every month. Then, there's mobile home maintenance, cell phone bills, the collective $5,000 in window upgrades. Now that David's in need of a kidney transplant, they'll need to start thinking of making their home wheelchair-accessible.
And if they'll have to start contemplating a move by next winter?
"It'll cost us anywhere from $3,000 to $5,000 just to move," Fredericy said in her front yard, organizing her garden and feeding gathering birds. "And where are we going to go anyway?"
She held back frustration, as she added, "They want to make the whole area green. They're just not thinking of how it's like being in our shoes."
Source: The Cleveland Scene - Euclid Beach Mobile Home Residents Fret About Future After Plans Announced to Boot Them, Turn Land Into Park